Four months old...

Oliver is four months old today!

Right now:

• his day starts around 7.30am when he wakes for his breakfast feed
• he goes down for a nap around 9am
• he also has an afternoon nap around 1pm
• he sleeps through the night and last night went to sleep at 7pm and only woke for his last feed
• he likes playing with his feet
• he likes to shove his fingers in his mouth
• he has started grabbing at things like the toys that dangle on his playmat
• he is very smiley - he loves to get your attention by just staring and smiling (very cute!)
• he is still in 0-3 month clothes but they are getting a wee bit small now
• he loves doing the actions for 'Wind the bobbin up'. It makes him howl with laughter!
• he has started to notice things in a mirror and will happily chat away at himself
• he is very chatty and makes lots of vowel sounds and the occasional screech too
• he particularly loves Evie cuddles (squashing sessions!) and any cuddle actually
• he can hold his own head up and is trying to sit up on his own
• he loves to sit in the kitchen and watch us cooking
• he is a very content little boy
  
• he has brought us lots of happiness and we love him very much xxx
  

A few piccies...

I spent some time at the weekend taking pictures of Evie and Oliver, trying to get the 'perfect' shot. It's a bit hard when neither of them will sit still!

Here's a few of the ones I took:

Oliver has found his feet and loves playing with them right now

Trying to look sweet and innocent!

Five cute little toes...

If the wind changes, you'll stay like that!

Singing and dancing Evie!

and finally, my two blue-eyed babies, all cosied up together, completely and utterly in love with each other.

December Daily...

I've decided to play along with Ali Edwards' December Daily album. I don't really do Christmas layouts so I thought this would be a good way to record what we get up to this year.

I'm going to slightly adapt the idea and rather than record the things that happen each day in chronological order, I want to record the preparations and celebrations in a thematic way.

Making the album was a great way to use up old stash. I went for a random page look: every page is different and some are folded concertina-style so I can include more info within them.

The covers are pieces of acetate and I used some Hambly rubons and a couple of stickers to decorate the front cover. It's all bound together ready to go using my BIA and some white wires.

Here's a couple of pics of what it looks like so far...




I've already made the cake so I'll be able to start my 'food' section right away with pictures and the recipe.

tfl x

(eta: sorry about the poor lighting in the photographs. The sun is actually shining today but it's still not bright enough for good pictures.)

Escaping...

Graeme and I had a lovely night away together on Saturday. The hotel was gorgeous and we came away very relaxed. We have Graeme's Dad to thank for it all - a very thoughtful birthday pressie :)

I had only taken my 50mm lens so it was difficult to get pictures of the room but we got a few shots of us (makes a change from piccies of the kids!).


It was so nice to be able to go out and
a) not have to drive home
b) not have to walk the dog and put kids to bed!
c) drink alcohol (not allowed when pregnant)
d) eat seafood (another not allowed when you're pregnant)

So, we made the most of it!

However, it was the best feeling to come home and be greeted by a very excited Evie screaming 'Mummy! I missed you!'

Sibling love...

The prompt for today's Stories in Hand class was to read some of the questions about your childhood and use one that inspired you to tell a story. This got me thinking about me and my brother. I've never actually scrapped about my childhood so thought it'd be nice to do so. So I scanned in one of my favourite photos of the two of us and took it from there. I didn't actually know what I was going to say until I got to the end of the layout but I knew I wanted it to be about sibling 'love' rather than rivalry!

I've used papers from the November SC kit - the green Scenic Route looked a bit like 1970's/1980s wallpaper so I went with that style/theme for the colours. My sewing machine decided to play up but I quite liked the messed up look so I left it distressed looking. I actually dared to rip the SC 'rip strips' - these are rather cool sticky-backed fabric strips. I cut them when I first used them as I didn't want to spoil them but sure enough, they do rip and leave a little frayed edge. They can also be crumpled up which I thought made it look a bit like an old piece of paper.

Sorry about the rubbish scan - my scanner doesn't like lumpy and bumpy! I need to add the date and our ages after I've checked with my Mum as I'm not quite sure when this was taken.

Graeme and I are having a night away tomorrow. My FIL's birthday present for me was a night in a hotel so we're going for a night out in Manchester tomorrow. My parents are coming to be in charge of the children (and dog): hope they behave for them (the kids that is!).

Right better get some beauty sleep...

My 'Stories in Hand' album

Scrapbooking to me, is all about recording the stories, but I often feel overwhelmed by recording the things that I want to remember. I hoped that this class would help me with this. So far, we have an album full of prompts to help you tell your story and a jotter idea for noting things down.

I've just finished putting my prompt book together today. I decided to use things from my stash to personalise it a bit more. I also tried out my 'slice' and used it to make all the scalloped shapes and letters on the front cover, as well as the tags for the dividers. I've had the papers for over a year and keep using little bits of them on different projects as I really love them and want them to go a long way!


Now I need to sit down and read it all!

wonder...

I've had a busy few days looking after children (including making a papier mache princess castle for Evie!) and trying to sort out new projects. The 'Stories in Hand' class started on Monday and so far I have managed to print everything I need and create an album cover. The only problem is that I decided to decorate and use an old MM 6x6 album but it won't hold all of the pages! Back to the drawing board.

Last week, I finally took the plunge and ordered the new MM Slice cutting machine. I've never owned a die cutter or similar before and this one suits me as it's small and portable. So far, I'm more than happy with what it does and made all the bits for my Stories in Hand album using it.

My Studio Calico kit arrived this morning. It's about the only stash I buy now and occasionally there are bits in there that I'm not sure about but this month I adore every single thing in the brown paper bag. So much so that I dived straight in and created this layout only using things from the kit (including some gorgeous alpha stamps)...


Journalling reads:
'Right now you are fascinated by the world around you. You want to know how things work or why they exist. You love collecting natural objects like leaves, acorns or 'conkoes' (conkers!). The other day you asked Daddy 'Why do leaves fall on the ground?'

TFL xxx

Cropping...

After over a year, I finally made it back to the Cheadle Crop :D
Had a great day and managed to do 6 layouts! Yes Jen, I am a swot!!!

Here's a few to share...

TOBY LOVE:

Some photos of Evie and our friend's little boy Toby from a couple of weeks ago. She loves him A LOT!!! Watching them walk hand in hand through the leaves brought a tear to my eye.

BEING TOGETHER:

I really like this photo of Oliver and I from the same weekend. Most bits are from the 'Alice' Studio Calico add-on kit from October. Really love that pom-pom trim.

AT THE FIRE HALL:

Another layout for our 'America' album. Graeme's cousin's husband is a firefighter and took us to his firehall to check out the engines. I had great fun pretending to drive it (and wearing Evie's fire hat!). I bought the AC papers and thickers from Sarah's shop yesterday - I was actually quite restrained as she has a fantastic stock of thickers which are my all time favourite product. Just had to have those red letters for this layout.

Got a few finishing touches to add to the other layouts, like dates and stuff so will share them later.

TFL xxx

New layout.

I decided to make compiling and finishing the album for our trip to America a priority. I realised that I was never going to scrap about everything so I have bought some photo inserts to mix in between memorabila and layouts.

We flew in and out of Toronto and before we left, we had a wander around the city and visited the CN Tower. We all braved the glass floor, including Evie. She was even dancing and lying down on it! There were loads of tourists pointing and laughing at her - they were all too scared to go near it! I didn't manage to catch all of this on camera but I did get a photo of her pointing down towards the ground and used it on this layout along with a photo of what she would have seen.

I've used lots of bits and pieces on here but the papers were all from the January Studio Calico kit (see, I'm being a good girl and using up my old stash!)


TFL xx